Category: issues

“Two New York-based not-for-profit research organizations, the Foundation Center and Grantmakers in the Arts, have issued a report showing that while the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had a deleterious effect on arts and culture philanthropy during 2001 and 2002, the drop in giving wasn’t as steep as first feared. Meanwhile, a new survey… suggests that charitable giving by corporations slackened in 2001, but then, in a surprise, rose dramatically in 2002.” Still, these numbers don’t mean that arts giving isn’t at disturbingly low levels, and the scramble in dozens of U.S. states to fix deficits by slashing arts funding is making matters even worse.

The budget crisis in California is dire, so dire that the Democrats in control of the State Senate are seriously considering a proposal to completely eliminate the State Arts Board, which issues $18 million in grant money to California artists each year. The wholesale destruction of the board, which draws $20 million from the public coffers annually, wouldn’t go far towards eliminating the Golden State’s eye-popping $38 billion deficit, but Senate leaders say there may be no way around it.

“Normally, the job of any Canadian arts journalist is to provide readers with an endless chorus of hurrahs, to be a booster, a fan, a tireless glee-clubber for all things Canuck.” But really – this relentless pushing of all artists Canadian is at best tiresome, and at worst… Enough with the Diana Krall and Celine Dion soundtracks playing endlessly through all our public spaces…

Last weekend, the latest Harry Potter book outsold Hollywood’s biggest movie. This disproves the idea that kids need the fast-cut media rush to be entertatined, writes Frank Rich. “We live in a blockbuster entertainment culture, where the biggest Hollywood movies, most of them pitched at teenagers, saturate the market for a week or two, then vanish with little lasting trace on the collective consciousness. There’s not enough time for the word of mouth that might allow something special but not instantly salable to find a mass audience, so why should a big studio take the chance? It’s easier just to churn out the proven formulas and franchises, dumb and dumberer with each installment. This disposable blockbuster machinery is the antithesis of the career trajectory of the ‘Harry’ series.”

Asheville, North Carolina used to be a manufacturing town. Now it makes arts, and resident artists think of themselves as leaders of the local economy. “We’re running a business here, not a charity. I might not be making a product that you can load into a truck. Our product may be intangible, but it adds to the quality of life. And I’m not polluting either.”

“Openly gay and lesbian artists – writers, directors, actors, composers – are more visible than ever in 2003 America. Indeed, when two men can share a kiss on national TV in celebration of their 25-year relationship and the Tony they have just won, it seems as if a milestone of acceptance and assimilation has been reached. And, certainly, gay characters are more in evidence than ever before on stage, screen, and TV. When a mainstream newspaper like USA Today runs an article asking, ‘How ‘in’ is it to be gay? Let us ‘out’ the ways,’ something must be afoot.”

While US state arts agencies are being pared back or eliminated, the National Endowment for the Arts is lining up for a slight increase. The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee is proposing to increase the National Endowment for the Arts budget to $117.5 million for fiscal year 2004 – up $1 million from the current year.

Singapore has seen an explosion in arts activity in the past decade. “The number of performing arts activities here has ballooned from about 1,900 in 1993 to more than 5,000 last year, and attendance for ticketed performing arts activities has risen by more than 200,000 to more than a million in the same period.” So plans are being made to build more – and hopes are building to attract an international musem…

Florida’s new budget was signed into law this week, and it means an 80 percent cut in arts funding. “The budget, signed into law Monday, provides nearly $5.9 million for the state’s arts organizations, down from the $28 million they got last year and a far cry from the $35 million they’d requested for the coming year. Add to deep budget cuts the difficulty arts groups have raising money, and the result is a collective gasp.”

The Minnesota State Arts Board budget has been cut 61 percent, so eight of 19 employees were laid off Monday. The cuts represents “a 42 percent cut in the staffing of an organization that has supported art and artists in the state for a century.”